.TH INPLACE 3am "Feb 29 2024" "Free Software Foundation" "GNU Awk Extension Modules"
.SH NAME
inplace \- emulate sed/perl/ruby in-place editing
.SH SYNOPSIS
.ft CW
.nf
gawk -i inplace ...
.fi
.ft R
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.I inplace
extension adds two functions named
.B inplace_begin()
and
.BR inplace_end() .
These functions are meant to be invoked from the
.I inplace.awk
wrapper which is installed when
.I gawk
is.
.PP
By default, each named file on the command line is
replaced with a new file of the same name whose contents
are the results of running the AWK program.
Since a new file is created, if the file is a link (whether hard
or symbolic), the link will be broken.
This behavior is consistent with GNU
.I sed
which also breaks links when the
.B \-i
or
.B \-\^\-in\-place
flag is used.
If the user supplies an AWK variable named
.B inplace::suffix
in a
.B BEGIN
rule or on the command line, then the
.I inplace
extension concatenates that suffix onto the original
filename and uses the result as a filename for renaming
the original.
.PP
For backwards compatibility, the variable will also check
.B INPLACE_SUFFIX
(in the
.B awk
namespace) for the suffix to use if
.B inplace::suffix
is not set.
.PP
One can disable inplace editing selectively by placing
.B inplace::enable=0
on the command line prior to files that should be processed normally.
One can reenable inplace editing by placing
.B inplace::enable=1
prior to files that should be subject to inplace editing.
.\" .SH NOTES
.SH BUGS
While the extension does attempt to preserve ownership and permissions,
it makes no attempt to copy the ACLs from the original file.
.PP
If the program dies prematurely, as might happen if an unhandled signal
is received, a temporary file may be left behind.
.SH EXAMPLE
.ft CW
.nf
gawk -i inplace '\f(CIscript\fP' files ...
.br
gawk -i inplace -f \f(CIscriptfile\fP files ...
.fi
.ft R
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR "GAWK: Effective AWK Programming" ,
.IR filefuncs (3am),
.IR fnmatch (3am),
.IR fork (3am),
.IR ordchr (3am),
.IR readdir (3am),
.IR readfile (3am),
.IR revoutput (3am),
.IR rwarray (3am).
.SH AUTHOR
Andrew Schorr,
.BR schorr@telemetry-investments.com .
.SH COPYING PERMISSIONS
Copyright \(co 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2024,
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
.PP
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of
this manual page provided the copyright notice and this permission
notice are preserved on all copies.
.ig
Permission is granted to process this file through troff and print the
results, provided the printed document carries copying permission
notice identical to this one except for the removal of this paragraph
(this paragraph not being relevant to the printed manual page).
..
.PP
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
manual page under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.
.PP
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual page into another language, under the above conditions for
modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in
a translation approved by the Foundation.
.\" vim: set filetype=nroff :
